tomorrow is promised to no one (but darling, we'll face it together)
by perfectlyrose
Summary: When Rose smashes into the wall a fraction of a second after the Void closes the Doctor's world stops spinning. A Doomsday fix-it.


So I promised I'd write a Doomsday fix-it this month (my first!) and here it is! I PROMISE it has a happy ending, no one dies.

This is also dedicated to chocolatequeen for being amazing and masterminding Doomsday Month and also getting me to write a fix-it.

Warnings for non-explicit medical content

* * *

The Doctor gently smoothed his hand over Rose's hair, moving slowly to try and soothe her into sleep. His shirt was damp from her tears and he knew she had to be exhausted. It had been a rough day for everyone.

He exhaled sharply through his nose, the closest he could come to laughing derisively at himself without moving. Calling the day "rough" was probably the biggest understatement of his lives.

He knew he should probably leave so she could get some solid rest but nothing short of a universal crisis would even make him consider leaving her side right now.

Even that would require careful consideration.

The day had started out brilliantly. Flirting and a visit with Jackie that had made Rose happy and by association made him happy. but now every time he closed his eyes all he could see was her falling towards the Void, screaming while he watched, helpless, unable to do anything, unable to save her.

The Void had collapsed in on itself closing a mere 0.573 seconds before Rose hit the wall with a sickening thud.

He'd run to her, barely aware of the fact that he was still calling for her, saying her name over and over even though his throat was raw from screaming.

 _She was here, she was here, she was **here**_ , was all he could think, was the only thing going through his gigantic brain.

She was still here but she wasn't _safe_.

The Doctor barely remembered scooping her up in his arms and running for the TARDIS, racing the faint heartbeat he could feel reverberating in her chest, almost confident that he could make it to the infirmary before it gave out, before her collision with the wall had irreversible consequences, before she was gone.

He almost made it.

He was two steps away from the doors of the TARDIS when he felt her heart trip over itself and then stop.

He had never run faster than he did in that moment, time seeming to freeze around him.

(He was never quite sure if he'd actually done so in that moment or not.)

Once in the infirmary it was all a blur of machines and panic and self-admonishments that he was the Doctor and he needed to start acting like one so he could save her.

He was watching her die for the second time that day but this time he wasn't helpless.

(The words of the Beast on an impossible planet played on repeat in his head, threatening to make his hands shake with terror when he needed them to stay steady.)

( _The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon._ )

(He'd told her that it had lied but what if he was the liar? What if the Beast had somehow foreseen this timeline?

(Her heart had stopped, she had technically been dead for a few moments but he wasn't going to let her slip away again. That was as true as he was going to allow the prophecy to be.)

It was twenty minutes before he was sure that she was stabilized. He turned up the volume on the various monitors he had hooked up before collapsing in the chair next to the medical bed. The steady beeping reassured him that her heart was beating still, strong and unfailing now as it always had been.

The minutes and hours slipped by unmeasured in anything but heartbeats.

This many since the last time she'd smiled at him. This many since she'd been awake. This many since her heart had started beating again and his world had started spinning again.

The count slipped from his mind when he felt her hand squeeze his.

Then there had been joy and smiles, him beaming down at her and her smiling weakly up at him.

Then there had been questions.

The Doctor slipped into the bed next to her and held her close as the full import of the day sunk in.

(There was no question about him being at her side.)

Rose had cried and mourned the loss of her mum and Mickey and her could-have-been dad and the Doctor held her throughout, hearts aching for her. He hated seeing her in pain, hated knowing that he couldn't do anything to fix it.

(His hearts ached for her and for the loss of the family he'd found with her family but he knew that this pain was nothing compared to what he would be feeling if he'd actually lost her today, if she'd ended up in that other universe or if he hadn't been fast enough to save her.)

(His hearts ached but they were whole because she was here with him.)

They still had a lot to talk about, the two of them. There were words he wanted to give her that were now living on the tip of his tongue instead of as a lump in his throat. He needed to make sure that she still wanted to keep the promise she'd given him time and time again that she was staying with him forever.

It would all wait until they'd rested and healed though. They had time, though he wasn't going to take a single second for granted after today.

They had weathered the storm he'd felt coming, had beaten the prophecy of the Devil himself, and had come out of the experience mostly alive but there was no doubt that they were battered and scarred.

He stared down at the crown of her head for a moment before laying a kiss on the nest of gold there. Her breathing had finally evened out a few minutes ago, signaling her shift into slumber.

Tomorrow the healing could begin and he could tell her about his idea to find a way to say goodbye to her mum.

Tomorrow he could give her the words she deserved and he wanted to say.

Tomorrow couldn't come fast enough and yet he was willing to wait for as long as it took, so long as he got to face it with Rose at his side.


End file.
